Man Sells $500,000 In Raffle Tickets For House, Doesn't Hold Raffle

Last August, a homeowner in Massapequa, NY — the town that gave us the Baldwin brothers, Jerry Seinfeld, Steve Guttenberg, Marvin Hamlisch and Joey Buttafuoco — began selling raffle tickets at $50 a pop for a chance to win his 5-bedroom, 4-bath house. Eight months and 10,000 raffle tickets later, he still hasn’t given the house away.

According to reports, the original date for the raffle was Dec. 15. That then became Feb. 15, and then March 20. That day has come and gone, and those holding useless raffle tickets are not happy.

The tickets had been sold through PayPal, but when at least on ticket-buyer attempted to get his refund he was told “PayPal won’t honor anything that’s in excess of 90 days.”

The homeowner talked to a local CBS affiliate. He told them that the raffle had been called off and he then claimed to have refunded the money for 10,000 tickets.

All that CBS was able to verify was that the PayPal account used for the raffle is frozen. They say, “PayPal has not been able verify anyone has gotten their money back, and several ticket holders said they haven’t seen any money back.”